


Yellow Roses

by stargazing_idiot



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22622452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargazing_idiot/pseuds/stargazing_idiot
Summary: A very gay day





	Yellow Roses

I dragged my feet behind me as I walked up the stairs to my apartment. Fumbling for my keys as I tried not to drop any of my groceries.  


When I got inside, Pancho, the rambunctious chihuahua barked and whined at my feet, my roommate was playing video games, concentration glued on her face as she tried to beat a timed challenge. Yet she had time to say, “Hey, I brought home cake from an office party today.”  


I smiled and dropped a bag of sweets on the coffee table, this caused Maya to pause her game. She started to smile too, but hers was much more smug.  


“Can’t stay away from that café huh? I wonder why.” My face started to heat up, but I quickly turned toward the kitchen and busied myself with putting away the groceries. I heard Maya end her game and turn on one of our favorite shows. I opened a bag of chips and went back to the living room.  


Settling into the couch, I put the bag of chips between us, and we started to chat about our days.  


“Whose birthday was it?” I asked as I dipped my hand in the bag.  


“Randall, I still haven’t forgiven him for saying that sexist shit to me on my first day, hence why I took the rest of the cake home. No one even asked him if he wanted to rest, I swear, no one likes him, and he just gets away with murder because he’s the boss’ boyfriend.”  


“I still can’t believe there isn’t some rule against that, you’re a living example for why they need those rules in the first place.”  


“I know! But I like my job too much to risk losing it by complaining. Good thing we’re in completely different departments and I never have to hear his stupid loud voice or opinions.”  


“Except when there’s cake?”  


Maya gave me a smile, “Except when there’s cake.” She dipped her own hand in the lime chips and laughed, “So how about you? What was your day like?”  


I could hardly contain my excited smile.  


“You know… same old schedule…,” I said nonchalantly, trying to keep my expression neutral, “except Blue Barium got a call back from that bar!!”  


Maya gasped, “Congratulations! I’m so excited for you guys! When’s the big show?! Wow it’s like a birthday gift for you early!”  


I smiled and told her the whole story of us being asked to open for a local band. We were both so ecstatic about the entire thing, I almost forgot about her teasing me about my café crush.  


“So…” Maya said turning back to the TV, “Are you going to put up posters or anything? To get people excited about your amazing band’s first performance?”  


I nodded and said, “Yeah The Dead Milkmen already gave us about 50 fliers to hand out and hang up.”  


“Oh cool, can I have some to put up as well? I can put it up around my job and the places I go to for lunch.”  


Grinning, I told her how much I would appreciate that.  
***  


The bell on the door rang as I walked into the café. I did a quick once over with my eyes to see who was working. When I saw her, I couldn’t help but smile, and when our eyes met, I could feel my face heat up. She was busy ringing up another customer, so I got in line to say hi and put in my own order.  


While she was taking the other person’s order, I tried to go over what I wanted to say in my head. The customer walked off and suddenly it was my turn, yet I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t even notice until she said, “Hey, you’re back! It’s always nice to see my favorite customer.” Everything I had prepared left my brain as soon as I heard her soft voice and saw that warm smile.  


“Hey Sophie! Uh… Yeah! I’m back, I can’t stay away from the amazing coffee or customer service here…”  


“Well what will it be? Do you want your usual?” The fact that she remembered anything about me was enough to make me blush all over again. Working in customer service just makes people’s faces blend together. But somehow, I had stood out to her.  


“Y-yeah! I’d love that.”  


“You got it; it’ll just be a few minutes.”  


I took a seat at the end of the counter. It was a slow day, so she only had to prepare the 2 orders she had just taken. I always try my best to not be creepy and stare at people. But I couldn’t help myself around her. The look of intense concentration she got when she thought no one was watching. So focused. The way the curls in her hair bounced around as she hurried back and forth to grab different ingredients. Everything about her made me feel happy.  


She called out the order of the man before me, but she had walked over to me and set my cup in front of me herself. She smiled as I thanked her.  


“So, what are you working on today?” she gestured to the stack of papers that was sat on the counter next to me.  


I had forgotten about them already. I swear, my brain short circuits whenever I’m here. Probably not a good idea on my part that I decided to start writing papers here… “Oh! These? I was hoping I could hang up some fliers for a show? If that’s okay of course! I don’t want to get you into any kind of trouble.”  


She smiled again, “Yeah it’s completely cool! What kind of show are the fliers for?” I handed her one and she looked a little confused. Scrunching up her eyebrows in a cute confusion. “That’s strange.”  


There was a beat as I continued to look at her beautiful face, it almost went on for too long, but I caught myself in time to give an ever helpful, “What?”  


“Someone already hung up this poster, actually, I think 3 other people came in after the first person and left the fliers at the counter.”  


I turned to look at the bulletin board and saw my fliers hanging up. A glance at the counter showed a small stack of papers that I didn’t notice when I was placing my order. Immediately my brain made the connection to my bandmates and roommate. All people who had tried to encourage me to ask this cute barista out, but I had never had the courage to pull the trigger and just ask. I didn’t want to creep her out, customer service was hard enough without people randomly asking you out. Besides, she was so cute it was probably a regular occurrence….  


“Oh!” I smiled at her nervously, “This place is close to the venue, so the bands have probably put these in all the shops…”  


“Oh cool! I’m really excited for you guys. I love all women bands, so I’m really excited for yours to get the recognition it deserves.” Yet again, I could feel my face heat up. It was so embarrassing how easily this woman could make me blush… I hoped she never noticed. I feel like I’m always so obvious.  


“I’m excited too. Super nervous as well, but not much I can do about that except try my best during our show.”  


Sophie giggled, “I’m sure you’re much better than you think you are.” She may as well have knocked me dead with the giggle and compliment coming one after the other.  


***  


I smiled against the shine of the stage lights. I could tell my legs were going to be sore from all the jumping and dancing I was doing on stage. With a bass strapped to me no less. It was the first time I had played while dancing around.  


Normally in rehearsal I would just stand and play but standing in front of this screaming crowd had pumped me with exhilaration I hadn’t felt before.  


“This next one goes out to all the lovers in the crowd, whether you’re in love or if you’re trying to find it for yourself,” Shelby, our lead singer turned and winked at me, “ARE YOU READY FOR MORE?!” she screamed at the crowd. The crowd exploded into more sound, something that didn’t feel possible because of all the noise that was already surrounding us. The beat we gave the audience to cheer left me just enough time to swipe a drink from a water bottle the bar had provided. Then we launched into our next song.  


The whole time the crowd didn’t let up. It was a consistent stream of noise against our song “Yellow Roses” which was a sweet song about how love had made all of the members of our band feel.  


We finished the song and Shelby screamed, “THANK YOU FOR BEING AN AMAZING AUDIENCE.” They cheered one more time for us, and we walked off the stage to let The Dead Milkmen play.  


We all laughed and cheered ourselves once we were backstage.  


“That was amazing! You guys did so well! I’m so proud of us!” Shelby gathered all of us in a hug, and we screamed in excitement together. We drank and laughed backstage, the celebration lasted until the crew at the bar told us we had to load up our equipment, which was after the concert had completely finished. Still laughing, we strolled over to our van and started to pass each other heavy instruments and amps.  


“This came for a Bianca?” a sudden voice said behind me.  


“That’s me,” I put an amp in the van and turned around. I couldn’t help but gasp at the dozen of yellow roses that the crewman was holding. I took them from him carefully and just stared at them for a minute. Not even registering that he was still talking to me until I looked up at him and could see his mouth moving. “What? I’m sorry could you say that again?”  


He rolled his eyes and repeated himself, “A girl tried to reenter the venue with these, but we don’t do reentries, so she left these with us and asked us to make sure they got to Bianca in Blue Barium.” I thanked him and continued to look at the pretty delicate features of the flowers.  


“Hey Bianca, don’t make us load all this up ourselves,” our guitarist Alex called to me. I turned around and everyone stopped to look at my brightly colored bouquet.  


“Sweet! Are those for us?” our keyboardist Katy asked.  


“Let me see!” Shelby grabbed them before I could stop her. “Look there’s a card.” She opened up a shiny red card at the bottom of the bouquet.  


“I didn’t see that, and I’m sorry guys but the crewman told me that they were just for me,” I said.  


Shelby whistled, “What a lucky woman you are, check this out.” She handed them back to me and I read the card. I couldn’t help but blush, but this time I’m also blaming it on the alcohol.  


“You’re like a yellow rose to me, love your secret admirer.”  


***  


I dragged my feet behind me as I walked up the stairs to my apartment. Fumbling for my keys as I tried to stay standing. Being this tired and having the alcohol in my system heightened my grumpy mood. Moving all our equipment wiped me out harder than I thought it would. I dropped my keys and was about to groan in frustration, the predicted leg soreness and bass strapped to me didn’t help my mood, but as I bent down to get my keys I saw the flowers that were given to me. All the excitement of the night had also worn me out, but remembering the good things filled me with a new hopeful energy about my future.  


Everything is shit when I’m at work and school. Everything always costs so much money, and I feel like I’m never going to catch up and get to relax during my lifetime.  


I know these feelings are normal because my friends and I have talked and they feel the same way. I guess that’s just life when you’re in your 20’s.  


Nothing feeling quite right.  


But I’m too stubborn to really believe that everything’s wrong. To completely give up my childhood hope and wonder for the world.  


“Great, I bummed myself out.” I looked at my phone. “And just in time for my birthday, here’s to another depressing year in a row,” I thought to myself.  


When I entered my apartment, I wearily turned on the light.  


“SURPRIIIIIIIISE” came dozens of voices that combined into a thundering boom. I dropped my roses in my, well, surprise.  


I looked around and smiled. A group of my friends smiled back, all wearing ridiculous pointy hats. Maya was carrying a big cake that had Blink 182 on it, “No one likes you when you’re 23” was written in black frosting at the bottom. 5 candles were perched at the top, somehow lit, which I would have noticed coming into my dark apartment. I didn’t question it too hard, because suddenly this beautiful cake was thrust toward me.  


My friends had started to sing Happy Birthday, as loudly and obnoxiously as they could. When it was over, they all stared at me expectantly. I shut my eyes tight, as I had always done since I was a little kid, I kept them shut as I blew out the candles, and my friends cheered.  


***  


A game tournament started after everyone had finished their cake. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone hurry into the kitchen, but the people surrounding me had grabbed my attention better. I laughed and talked excitedly about my day to my friends.  


The next time I passed by the table, it was set up for a feast, a little group of people were finishing the set up. Others were getting a drink or food. But most of the attention was focused on the Mario Kart tournament on the TV.  


4 people were playing, Maya and Zack as Princess Peach and Link. Shelby and Sky were playing as Toad and Wario. Things were getting intense as people picked up special items. The chaos of this party was fun to be a part of. All the energy of my friends had come together beautifully, and soon I was having too much fun to notice being tired.  


It was my birthday party, so people were passing me drinks and controllers to ensure I was having the best time. It was amazing. I felt so at home.  


As I was concentrating on backing up in Mario Kart to avoid a blue shell, I heard someone knock on the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another friend answer it and whoever was there was rushed to the side where I couldn’t see them, I didn’t turn to look, focused entirely too much on winning.  


I won the tournament and quickly stood on my feet and said “Yes! Take that fuckers!”  


When I looked at the back of the room, Sophie was there laughing with her hand over her mouth, her own laugh being lost in the conversation at the party. I stopped immediately, put my hands over my face and laughed myself. “Gosh that was embarrassing,” was all I could think.  


While walking away from my seat next to Maya to try and talk to Sophie, I tried handing my controller over to someone else that wanted to play. They didn’t accept it, instead, Maya said, “Wait! She can play with my controller!” and she quickly dashed to the back of the room to push Sophie into the center of the living room. She looked surprised as my tiny roommate pushed her to the seat next to me.  


I couldn’t help but put my hands on my face again as my roommate was obviously trying to put us together. A second helping of embarrassment was enough to make me want to shrivel up and go to my room, but she smiled at me as she sat down and got ready for the next round. I sat down next to her and said, “Thanks for coming, you didn’t have to, but I’m glad you’re here.” I thought I could see her blush.  


“I need to thank that girl with the pink hair when I see her, the next time she’s not pushing me somewhere.”  


“I’m sorry about her, that’s my roommate, she can be a bit… bold when she’s trying to do something.”  


“Oh? What’s she trying to do?”  


“Oh! Um…,” I turned toward the screen, “Hey look we’re starting!”  


I heard a laugh from next to me, and Sophie said, “Your winning is about to end!” I turned and smiled at her.  


***  


My winning definitely ended, turns out Sophie was incredible at Mario Kart. She killed it as Princess Peach. After the game ended, Sophie winning the entire tournament, we cranked the music up and all started winding down by talking.  


A small gasp came from Sophie, “You have a dog?! Where is he??!” I laughed and smiled at her, taking in her cute excited expression.  


“He’s in my room.”  


“Can I see him?!” she asked grabbing my arm excitedly.  


I blushed, “Sure! Let’s go.” I was surprised at how bold I was being, no wonder this shitty tasting drink was called liquid courage. I started to walk to my room, Sophie still holding onto my arm. I looked at her arm wrapped on my own, not feeling like it was real.  


When we got inside, I closed the door and Pancho immediately walked up to us and started whining. He stood and tried to get my attention at my legs. Sophie exclaimed in delight. She crouched down to let Pancho sniff her. He was friendly so he warmed up to her quickly and let her pet him.  


“He’s so soft and little oh my god!” I couldn’t help but stare at her smile, the way she closed her eyes and let herself be in the moment. Letting herself laugh with delight at a tiny dog licking her cheeks. “Thank you so much for letting me see this little cutie. He’s wonderful.”  


“You’re wonderful” I thought to myself.  


Instead I said, “Yeah thank you for coming to my party, it’s always nice to see you.”  


“I feel the same way, by the way… I was hoping I could give you something.” She opened her purse and said, “Okay, this might be lame but close your eyes, I didn’t have time to wrap it.”  


I smiled and closed my eyes; I felt her warm hands grab mine and hold them up. I was hoping I didn’t look too obvious that that had surprised me. Then she got something out of her purse that crinkled and put something wrapped in plastic on my hands. “You can open them now.”  


When I opened my eyes and looked… It was a yellow rose.  


I stared at it in shock, and then stared at her the same way.  


She was definitely blushing now. With her eyes looking anywhere except my own, she said, “You really killed it at the concert tonight. Why don’t you read the card?”  


I looked at another red shiny card attached with string on the stem.  


“Will you go out with me? Love, your secret admirer.”  


I was completely tongue-tied for a minute. My mouth opening and shutting as I tried to think of something to say.  


“I- Fuck yes I will!”  


I grabbed her in a hug and thanked her for the beautiful gift. I could hear a sigh of relief turn into a laugh from her. As we pulled away, I could feel her hands around my waist. She was smiling, her eyes closed, our foreheads were touching, me craning my neck a little because of my slight height advantage.  


When she opened her eyes again, I couldn’t help but to keep looking at her. Except this time she was looking back at me. I stared into her deep brown eyes and blurted out, “Can I kiss you?”  


She smiled even wider and leaned forward until she kissed me.  


I could tell this was something I would remember for a long time.


End file.
